Tag Archives: Dave Dorr

Although I am not currently a church-planter, church-planting is something that I have a growing passion for, and hope to be a part of in one way or another for the rest of my life. So don’t be surprised if I end up posting a bunch of church-planting-related stuff on here…

I just read a short post over at the Resurgence called “Plant Churches Like a Missionary, Not a Pastor” by Dave Dorr, Pastor of Passage Church in Cincinnati, OH. Dave says that his biggest mistake as a church planter was “approaching a new church start like a pastor and not like a missionary.” He points out that the failure to see church planting as a missionary endeavor with the goal of forming a church out of lost people in that area can quickly lead to missing the very mission that church-planting is supposedly all about:

“I know church planters often don’t have to do evangelism to start churches domestically. They can start with a group of people from their sending church. They can recruit from other churches. They can find a group of people who are fed up with how other churches do things and launch from there. Some of these are legitimate ways to plant a church. Some of these are shady. But all of them miss evangelism.”

Jesus commanded us to go out and make disciples, not create consumeristic upgrades for believers who are not satisfied elsewhere. Our mission is not to create “cooler” churches that provide goods and services that other churches lack (See another recent post by Dave entitled “Consumers“); our mission is to lead lost people to life, and call them to become committed disciples. This is not to say that there should not be a core-group of believers when starting a church-plant, and Dave makes this point in his post. After all, we are not to be lone-rangers out calling people to come follow us, but rather a covenant community calling people to come join us in folling Jesus. In his concluding paragraph, Dave says “The church planter is a missionary first, doing evangelism, and leading the believers in his church to reach lost people.”

I think that a lot of newer (especially) urban churches on the scene right now would agree with this idea. The question is: Is this actually happening? When you look at your church and realize that it is not reflective of the neighborhood that it is located in, what does that mean? I think this is a complex question and the answer may not be as simple as it initially seems, but I do think it’s a question worth asking. Secondly, since many newer urban church plants do agree with this ideology, what can we adjust/change to be more faithful to what we actually believe? Is it possible that our baggage about the way we are used to doing church or small-groups is holding us back from reaching our neighbors?

I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I do want someone who asks the questions. I pray that God would help church-planters and pastors as well as believers who are part of church-plants to be willing to rearrange the way we do life and community in ways that are more inviting to our neighbors and more faithful to our mission.

Deeper Roots + Wider Branches

The idea is simple: As I pursue a deeper relationship with Christ, I pray that I will grow into a man who is deeply rooted in the gospel, and that the ever-widening implications of God's grace will propel me into a radical life of community and mission. The words found here (both mine and others) are my feeble attempt to be a catalyst and an encourager to brothers and sisters I know, and perhaps to some I have never met.